PLAY, COLLEGE & FIRST JOB!

       So I am an official high school graduate, nearing the end of my summer before I start college. I am so thrilled, but there's a lot I haven't updated on here from before school ended. Here I go again.
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       1. The last time I updated this blog, my Cup Song video from YouTube had a little over 600 views. That was in late April. It is now the beginning of August, and it currently has 5,258 views, 45 likes and 4 dislikes, but I honestly don't care about the dislikes. There's so many YouTube people who literally spend all their time watching cup song videos & criticizing them & leaving comments on them describing every thing they did wrong. Those people have not posted a single cup song video themselves. Losers. The only one that can judge my Cup Song video is Anna Kendrick, and I don't think she would.
       2. The play I wrote and directed at school turned out freaking amazing! During the rehearsal process, we had a couple problems with personal issues of some of my cast members, but we solved them. I wasn't having no dysfunction within my cast. We had cast bonding and stuff and we all felt much closer after that. I managed to get like half the school pumped about seeing my play alone, & everyone was excited because they knew I wrote it. I was really proud of it. My cast did great with memorizing their lines ahead of schedule and bringing their costumes and props. The first night of the show, there was a mishap with the soundtrack. I was playing it from my computer iTunes connected to an aux cable to play it over the speakers. But one of my cast members, TWO MINUTES before the show started, told me she forgot one of her costume shirts upstairs in the dressing room. There were some costume changes for all of the cast, basically, because the play took place over several days & we're not cartoon characters.So I had to run upstairs and get it, but during that time, my laptop just shut off. So between scenes, where there was supposed to be awesome indie music playing (that the cast and I honestly spent hours picking out), it was just silent. I wanted to scream. During rehearsals, when something went wrong, I would yell cuss words or just groan loudly, but having an audience silenced me. Eventually I got it working again and there was music. The audience loved it & I got so many compliments after the show from the parents of my cast and random people! The second night was MY FAVORITE. One of the best nights of my life. The sound & lighting was amazing, my actors had improved so much, and I was just so happy watching backstage. As Carry On played after the show finished, my cast bowed, and after they all bowed, I bowed because I wrote the whole damn 20 minute play all by myself! I spent so much time working on it & I felt I deserved a bow. AND WE GOT A STANDING OVATION! I almost cried, the feeling of satisfaction was so overwhelming. I will remember it forever. And honestly, so many people came up to me after & said my play was the best one out of all three student directed plays that night. So awesome. Then we had a cast dinner at IHOP after, wooo. Such an amazing experience, and I can't wait for theater at UT Arlington. :)
       3. I got an internship at The Branch church! And every other intern graduated with me or the year before me from Turner. Ughhhh. It's only for Sundays, entering college freshmen & sophomores come teach Sunday school classes (or just watch the babies) from newborns up to 5th grade. I teach (with an adult partner) the toddler class which is 18 months to 3 years old first service, and Sarah & I do 4th & 5th grade second service. AND it's a paid internship! But I think I would do it even if I weren't getting paid. It's been such a great experience. The toddler class is my favorite, they're just so cute & funny & becoming little people who actually know who we are & what's going on. The 4th-5th grade class is usually kinda tough, I leave tired every day. I also helped at The Branch vacation bible school, which was awesome, I had a class of 8-year-olds. Then I did Spotlight again, a musical camp for kids 1st grade to 6th grade. All counselors are teenagers, and my fellow counselors were pretty cool. We had 3rd & 4th graders. In my group there were several kids who became very attached to me, always wanted to hug me & hold my hand & sit in my lap. I loved it. One of them was an Asian girl, Maille, who was adopted into one of my favorite families there. She always was attached to me, & she would practically cry when I had to leave her to go do a counselor thing or to use the bathroom or anything. I think it has to do with the fact that her grandfather died recently, because the first time I had to leave her for a while, she asked if I was going away forever & if she would ever see me again. Awww. I had her older sister Olivia in my Spotlight group last year, & I got pretty close with her younger sister, Edie, who's six and so so funny. Maille & Edie are very close sisters and both became very close to me. I love them so much. Their family has adopted five kids & had two biologically, Olivia & Edie. Their parents are missionaries, so right now they're traveling & I'm sad they're gone for a couple months, at least. But I've had such a great summer with all the kids & volunteers at the Branch, and I definitely wanna volunteer in the future.


Once again, those are the major events of my past couple months! I'm so excited for college. I've got my schedule, dorm & roommate all set up, and I'm just so ready. Hopefully I'll have time to update this & do more YouTube videos. Have a great school year!

xoxo, Erin

HUGE UPDATES #2

   4) I got re-baptized!! As you can see, so much has happened in my life in just six months, let alone the five years that have passed since I was first baptized. So I just wanted a little re-affirmation of my faith in Jesus. I went under the water, and came up anew. I just love Jesus. 

       5) I WROTE A PLAY! And submitted it to Hollomon for me to direct it in this year's Lions in the Limelight. No other seniors submitted to direct, so the directors ended up being me, my friend Brooke, and this girl Krista who farts all the time. Not the gorgeous Krista Heard, but an awkward junior who likes to listen in on conversations. We had auditions and the first time I saw people read for my characters, there were tears in my eyes. It feels amazing to watch people be characters that you created, and read dialogue you wrote. It's great. So we all casted our plays and mine is going amazing. We just had cast bonding with a bucket of chicken, games and sharing our feelings. I won't post their names for privacy reasons, but they're a great bunch of actors. I will definitely post pictures, the video of the play, and everything :) it's gonna be great! I know it.

       6) Last night I went to prom! This was my first and my last. I would've gone with Lane, but he supposedly had no money, plus he just got a job, so he worked last night anyway. So I asked my friend Jio to go with me, and he said yes. He was very excited, he's a freshman. He played General Schmitz in Seussical, and he was a HUGE hit. He's so talented. He was in Spring Show with me too. He has adorable little brothers that love me. :) So yeah, we went to prom together and had so much fun. We slow danced, fast danced, and did every dance imaginable! That boy knows what he's doin' on the dance floor. And so do I, we're a perfect match ;) but I don't like him like that. Oh, the dinner was amazing! I could've eaten all that pasta Alfredo. I had fun with my other friends too. Bonnie & Matt, and Maddie was there! I was so glad she came, I can always count on a good time with her. She's hilarious and neither of us care what other people think. The three of us took pictures (that were free!) in this photobooth thing with props and it was really cute and fun. OH AND GUESS WHAT. The DJ played Teach Me How to Dougie, the dance to which I first impressed everyone with at a party two years ago. This girl Edina dragged me out to the middle of the dance floor screaming, "MAKE A CIRCLE, ERIN'S GONNA DOUGIE!" So I did, and everyone loved it :D all the popular people saw me, and they were loving it! It was so fun. I don't usually put myself out there like that, but I'm sooo glad I did! I hope someone took a video or something, that needed documentation! People kept saying, "Erin, I didn't know you could dance so black!" and other variations of that. Mainly because those people don't really know me. And people kept telling me how pretty I looked and how Jio and I looked so cute together. It's wonderful to get all dressed up for a night, go dance with people you do know and people you don't, and just enjoy your life. My first and last prom was one of the best nights of my life. 

Sooo there ya go! Hope that update was sufficient. Those were the main events that have occurred since the last time I posted. I'm really gonna have to keep up with this so I don't have to make super long posts like this one. I'll be at UT Arlington, so I don't know if I'll have time. I feel like I don't have time now, I wonder how college will be :o maybe I'll do a video diary on my YouTube! I posted the Cup Song, and it got 600+ views :) it's nice to be noticed. Thanks for reading all this.

Have a great week!

xoxo, Erin

 Me getting re-baptized! The water & weather were cold.

 Me in the car on my way to pick up Jiovanni, my prom date.

 Me & Jio at prom! We look so cute together. But I'm taller than him. Sigh.

 Me & Jio outside his house! He picked a gorgeous corsage :)

 Me outside my house! & the Coach wristlet my cousin let me keep!!

 Me and baby Merryn. I love this picture. We're so grown up!

 Me & Ronnie! This picture looks like we're straight from the 50s. Love it.

HUGE UPDATES

     

       

       I've meant to upload! Really, I have. I haven't posted since October. I suck. So much has happened in the past six months. SO HERE I GO GET READY WOO

       1) I didn't get the Sour Kangaroo in Seussical. I was absolutely distraught when I saw this random sophomore's name next to the character that should have been me. So Lane took me to McDonald's and to his house to vent and cry. I ended up being a Who. I had two kids, Audrey and Mackenzie. I bonded so much with them, especially since they already knew me from Annie last year. The musical ended up being a huge success! Mueggenborg was in it, lol. Lane was an awesome Grinch! I had so much fun with the kids and my friends.

       2) I sent college applications to Harvard, Baylor, and Oklahoma Christian. I ended up getting into the last two colleges, with $20,000 from each one :) a huge blessing. But what I, my family, and my friends were waiting for was acceptance to Harvard. We all spent months praying for it. When I got an email from them on March 28, and it was paragraphs explaining why they couldn't accept me, I was devastated. My friend who also got rejected by them picked me up that night and we just drove around and chilled, while ranting and cussing about the unfairness of life. We ended up getting Pillow Pets, I got a unicorn that I named Friday. :) I'm over it now, but I will apply every new school year. I won't give up. And even if they never accept me, I can still be successful, and I'm still a very smart young lady.

       3) I auditioned for Spring Show, this play at school that's directed by this well-known director, Demond Wilson. I improved my audition monologue and I cried and impressed everyone in the room! I ended up getting the lead role of Beth Willow, the emotional mother of a paraplegic young girl who wants her daughter to stay under her wing forever. I've learned so much about acting and becoming a character. The director was awesome and I had so much fun. Although I had to kiss a gay guy who played my husband. Lol. And people at school aren't letting that go. Oh well. It was such an amazing experience to have such a great lead role. It was set in like the 50s-60s, so I wore my grandma's old denim dress! Very authentic. Yeah.

    

More updates in the next post! :)

NOW FOR PICTURES EEEE

 Me and Lane in his Thing costume! He's adorable, my boo.

 Me and Merryn, who played Mrs. Mayor! She's gorgeous.

 Me, Yaritza & Krista, who were Bird Girls. They're so pretty!